equal confidence, who, what, shall separate us from each other, united as we are by this love? What shall separate us? Shall persecution? No, that will only bind us closer. Shall the feuds by which in this world society is torn, and even members of the same family armed and exasperated against each other-sectional jealousies, and political rancor, and party malignity? No, the cross which lifted the Saviour from the earth, lifts us high above these petty tumults and distractions. What then? -what shall separate us? Internal strife, intestine dissension? God forbid. God forbid. No, my brethren, I am persuaded better things of you. No, never, never, never; it cannot be. No, by our common toils and sufferings as Baptists; by the venerable men who sang together over the cradle of this Convention-those whose reverend forms I still see lingering fondly here-and those who this night, it is no presumption to believe, are beholding us with ineffable concern even from their thrones in glory; by the blood which cements us, and the new commandment written in that blood; by the memory and love of him who hath bound us together with ties indissoluble and eternal, and who is now in our midst, showing his wounds, his hands, his feet, his side, his head, and saying, "as I have loved you even so ought ye to love one another;" by all the glorious recollections of the past, and by all the more glorious anticipations of the future this must not, will not, shall not, cannot be. But my heart is too full. I must stop. My tears will not allow me to say many things I had wished to say. My feelings choke my utterance. Let me only re peat the Apostle's words-"The love of Christ constraineth us." Let me only renew the exhortation, Get nearer the cross. Live nearer the cross. Then no discord can interrupt our union, no troublesome birds of prey disconcert our sacrifice. "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene,"-let us take our stand there too, and we shall never want zeal, we can never lack devotion to the Saviour, and love for each other. Nor is it long that we have to be here, and to do for Jesus. Where is Crawford ? Where is Crawford? I seek in vain for his familiar face among you. Where is Knowles ? It seems to me but yesterday that I was addressing many of you, and he was there-his countenance beaming with intelligence and affection. Where is he now ? I look around, but I miss him to-night. And to-morrow, my brothers and fathers, where shall you and I be? To-morrow we, too, shall be missed. To-morrow the place that knows us shall know us no more. Tomorrow we shall die, and the august throne shall be piled for judgment, and we ourselves be standing at the foot of the awful tribunal. Let us act in view of that hour. Let us listen to the voice which comes to each of us this night from heaven, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." My brethren, my very dear brethren, have we been faithful? Each of us can say, "I know whom I have believed, and that he will keep that which I have committed to him against that day." Can Jesus say, as to each of us, I know whom I have believed, and that he has been faithful to the trust which I have committed to him? Let not the sin of perfidy rest longer upon us. Let not neglected duties and broken vows cry longer to heaven against us. Let not our works be longer "found unperfected before God." เ Christians, view the day Of Retribution! Think how ye will bear From your Redeemer's lips the fearful words, Thy brother, perishing in his own blood, Thou saw'st.-Thy brother hungered, was athirst, "The time of hope And of probation speeds on rapid wings The Resurrection. Then, when the ransomed come With gladness unto Zion, thou shalt joy To hear the valleys and the hills break forth Even so, Amen. O God the Father, hasten that time! O Holy Ghost, inspire us with something worthy of the name of zeal in such a cause! O glorious Shiloh, unto thee let "the gathering of the people be !" Let thy kingdom come!. "For thine is the kingdom, and thine the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty-all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine-thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head over all—and blessed be thy holy name, and let the whole earth be filled with thy glory. Amen, and Amen.” THE SERMON XIII. DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS.* "And the Desire of all nations shall come.”—HAGGAI, ii. 7. THE text foretold a strange phenomenon. It declared that the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity would be seen among sinful men ; that he who from everlasting had dwelt in light unapproachable, would assume some form, and make his entrance upon this globe; that the invisible and ever-glorious, whom no man had seen, nor could see the Eternal forever concealed behind stars and suns, would veil his effulgence, and come into the world. Such is the prophecy; and if this wonderful event, dimly anticipated, could agitate and transport the inmost spirit of patriarch and prophet, flooding them with rapture, what should be our emotions now-now when he has come; when we have seen the brightness of the Father's glory," "come forth from the Father, and come into the world ;" when he who, "being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God," has "made himself of no reputation, and taken upon him the form of a servant, and been made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, 66 * Preached before the Southern Baptist Convention, at its first annual session, in Richmond, June 10, 1846. |